Does anyone care to attempt to lift my veil of ignorance and explain to me how a mulberry fruits?
My understanding is they fruit on second year wood, but my question is for how long? Do you have to actually renewal prune them?
I am considering a very large espalier, so I wondering about the fruiting wood on the laterals.
I have a lot of experience runting out the size of large trees via espalier so tree size is not the issue as much as the fruiting characteristics of the mulberry that concerns me.
Thank you for the response. It is nice to hear from you as always. Perhaps some day we shall meet in person. I was hoping to run into some of the folks from this list when I presented at NAFEX last year,but no such luck.
So, to be clear are you saying I get perpetual fruiting off the shoots then?
Yes I’ve not seen any branches ever quit fruiting. A couple years ago i grafted over a male mulberry to a female and was shocked to see rapid growth and some fruit by year 2. I expect the same wood to fruit again this year. Look forward to meeting you in person as well. Thought about you when i was at the airport there a couple of months ago.
From my observations …
Mulberrys fruit on new growth, this could be from the end of branches, or from spur type side shoots on older branches.
Not completely sure of this , need more , closer observation .
This may vary with different types,?
My main interest in this is being able to prune them hard, so as to keep them small and pickable, yet fruitful.
Can anyone confirm ,that if a tree at Bering age is pruned very hard , it will fruit on all the new growth ?
I have one everberring type that will, but what about the other varietys.?
I grow different mulberries (alba, alba x rubra and nigra) and all of them are fruiting at the base of this years growth (new shoots). The first 3-4 leaf nodes of thoses green shoots bear fruit.
Not all shoots are fruitful. Typically the most fruit comes from the shoots developing from basal buds of last years growth. I would say approx the first 30 - 40% of the buds on a shoot are the most fruitful. The later the buds developed last year the less fruitful they are in my experience.
So in conclusion, if you prune up to 50% of last years growth you wouldn’t hurt production too much. My trees are still quite young though. Maybe with older trees more of the buds are fruitful.
Pruned IE then it grow over 6 ft and fruited in summer. Pruned twice more in summer. Can’t keep this one under control. I have one that was prunned low when it was young to train as a shrub. This summer will tell me if it’s more manageable.
